The Sounds of Water
by Redflowercactus
Summary: ' "Huh. That's weird", she thought as she approached the solid red section of the lane line. She was close to the pool's edge now. Where was that person with the pool noodle? ' May turn into a series of vignettes or a full story. S/U pairing & friendship.


The Sounds of Water

Chapter 1: Where the Water's Deep

Disclaimer: There's no way that I make money off of this story! The characters of Star Trek belong solely to Paramount. However, any original characters are mine.

* * *

Spock was fully submerged in the deepest end of Starfleet Academy's Olympic sized swimming pool.

He was also sinking like a heavy stone.

Dragging his pool noodle down with him, he felt at peace- it was as if he were meditating. He was vaguely aware that he might be slowly drowning, but with so little oxygen making it to his brain, he didn't try to understand why he wasn't struggling to live and why he wasn't thrashing around like a maniac.

All Spock knew was that the water was surrounding him in a silent, comforting embrace, and it was drawing him into its depths. He clutched the pool noodle a little tighter. The water blurred his vision and though the pool was lit up underwater, Spock's sight began to darken and flicker at the edges.

He had been sinking in the water for... how long?

He didn't know.

His perception of time was altered as well. How had he not reached the bottom of the pool yet? This end was only 5 meters deep.

Suddenly, just as he was about to black out completely, a pair of strong arms grabbed him from behind him and began to drag him upwards.

Nyota Uhura's chronometer read 0532 when she stepped into the Academy's indoor pool. Even though the pool automatically opened at 0500, there would be no lifeguards on duty until 0700- she had a tight schedule and she wasn't going to wait for 0700 to arrive. She planned to swim for an hour, shower for fifteen minutes and take a hoverbus to catch her 0700 class afterwards. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and strapped on her goggles, she realized that the pool room was empty save for one lone figure near the diving boards.

Uhura yawned. She never went for morning swims, but recently a terrible incident on Sigma 1832 had caused the Academy to institute a mandatory swimming test for all cadets, regardless of their chosen career tracking. 0530 to 0630 this morning was the only hour she had to brush up on her swimming skills before her swimming test was administered. Not that she needed a lot of practice, but it had been a while since she last swam.

As she slipped a silicone swim cap over her hair, the figure near the diving board jumped into the water with a pool noodle. Soon after, Uhura entered the opposing, shallow end of the pool. She began to backstroke towards the diving boards for a quick warm-up.

"Huh. That's weird", she thought as she approached the solid red section of the lane line. She was close to the pool's edge now. Where was that person with the pool noodle? She had been swimming for a good minute or two and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of her fellow swimmer. Concerned, she stopped swimming when she reached the pool's edge. Grabbing onto the edge, she surveyed the pool's surface. Presumably, the other swimmer was a man since he wasn't wearing a swim top. Yet top or not, she didn't see anyone at the surface. Perhaps the man was in the locker room? But like her, he had just started swimming two minutes ago. There was only one place left to look. Taking a breath, she dunked her head underneath the water's surface.

And then she saw him. About 3 meters away and 3 meters below her was a man clutching tightly onto a pool noodle. The pool lights illuminated his body and the noodle, showing her exactly where he was. But he seemed to be sinking. And he wasn't moving. Uhura panicked. Was he drowning? Eyes wide and blood pumping wildly with adrenaline, she propelled herself towards the descending man. After situating herself behind his prone form, she slipped her arms under his armpits, grabbed his shoulders and swam as quickly as possible to the surface.

* * *

Author's note: Spock's experience is modeled after my own experience of nearly drowning when I was a child. Yes, there was a pool noodle involved- but the key differences would be that the pool wasn't lit up and I actually thought I was going to die. Yay for real life (or should I say near-death?) experiences! Also, I finished typing this in August, but didn't finish editing until December.


End file.
